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Unidentified American Instruments |
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From The Cadenza, 1901. I can't quite tell how many necks or headstocks this one has! | From The Cadenza, year unknown |
This is an interesting instrument. Note the star in the bass headstock. | Not quite like any known instruments in the Form galleries | Hard to say on this low res image. Is the image reversed or not?! |
These look home-made, but are featured in The Knutsen Archives because of the obvious influences |
Peru, 1931 Could this possibly be Knutsen-influenced as well? |
Two images of the Stevens Institute of Technology Mandolin Club in 1898. What a strange sub-bass neck! |
Another mandolin club from 1899 with an unidentified harp guitar that bears some similarity to one of the strange Washburns on the Identified American Iconography page |
The image at
left and the two below are from "Mandolins, Like Salami" by
Sheri Mignano Crawford, courtesy of the author. The 2005 book contains
personal stories about Italian mandolin orchestras in San Francisco -
rare glimpses into the groups and their members.
Available
from www.zighibaci.com
For example, one Salvatore de Natale shows up in 1920 with a unique harp guitar, likely made by an Italian-American. He is still playing it in 1937 and 1938 in The Aurora Mandolin Orchestra. One other example by this unknown luthier is shown here. |
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The Ideal Mandolin Club, from The Cadenza, Sept, 1920 |
Aurora Mandolin Orchestra, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1937 | Aurora Mandolin Orchestra, Fugazi Hall, North Beach, San Francisco, 1938 |
This great image is of King Oliver's Orchestra, New York, March 1931. The harp guitarist is Ernest Meyers. He doesn't appear to be present on any of the many recordings listed. This is from a fantastic resource site of rare information and 78 recording downloads - The Red Hot Jazz Archive. |
Kalama's Quartet, featuring Bob Nawahine on harp-guitar. This specimen eluded me until mid-2008, when a very similar Oscar Schmidt instrument turned up (in Gallery Form 2c) - so that's my vote. |
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